Claude in His New Home

Claude seems to be getting along quite nicely in his new location.  He still has a window we can open on nice days and we bought him a new Feit Grow Light.  This one has more settings.  We got it at Home Depot in the commercial lighting area.  They guy there didn't know they even had them over there.  He tried to get me to get grow fluorescent or screw in bulbs...

The light we got has different switches for different light on the strips. There's white, red, and violet. Violet seems to be for general growth where red is for flowering.  I probably want to use red soon to see if I can get Claude to make flowers.

We also got these nice brick feet for the pot instead of the trash can rollers.  They were much more expensive than regular bricks but the pot is heavy so I don't really mind.  The trash can base really couldn't take the weight of the pot and had started bowing in.  Not the best thing to use.  Looked on Amazon for something similar but they didn't have any basic ones.  I don't recommend plastic, cork, or rubber since these will deteriorate over time if  you don't move your pots.  I did find these feet though.  Amazon has them in different colors too but I'd suggest red.  It just feels more like the pots.

A Chocolate is Announced, Bean to Bar Mysteries No.7

Here's a glimpse into the next Bean to Bar Mystery, A Chocolate is Announced!

You can get your preorder on Amazon HERE.

It can be difficult to really get the sense of a thing sometimes when you can't see the whole picture.  This is merely a glimpse into the process of getting the cover art done for these books.  Everything you see in this image will not be the same on the final cover.  Text placement, art, and arrangement are all up in the air at this point.  This was a rough talking point sketch that gives some of the elements we're looking for, as well as the color scheme.

There have been two rounds since this and we're still hammering out what we want things to look like and where everything should go.  Can you tell what animal it is in the photo that Felicity is going to be interacting with in this book?  If you've read the other books in the Bean to Bar Mysteries series what other animal would you like to see her meet?

English Ivy

So many plants can be grown in an office. This English ivy is one such plant that can thrive in an office environment.  Of course they can also thrive on the side of a brick building so it really isn't surprising.

We have so many office plants where I work but unless you're looking for them you might not notice them.  This little guy showed up and had to be pointed out.  From the side it almost looks like he's growing through this wire sculpture it's sitting next to. which isn't the worst of ideas.

Then there is a money "tree".  I quote mark that because I don't think they're really trees.  At least I've never seen one being a tree or even a bush.  They have always been these spindly little things all wound up in a knot.  It sits near the break room but currently only has two leaves on it.  I hear it's being nursed back to health but I don't think it will make it.  Just my own observation with these things.  They aren't the best office plant.

I've mentioned many office plants before,  The ficus is a nice choice.  Although it looses leaves pretty regularly it can take a wide range of growing conditions.  If I had more space I'd probably get one.  Speaking of ficus trees though, that is also the group fig trees are in.  Maybe I can talk my wife into letting me have another fig tree.  It was the one tree that really seemed to do well and produce food.  Just have to keep the birds off of it and keep it trimmed well enough to keep a good lawn to boot.

Of course I couldn't forget to mention Claudette and her twin, the office cacao trees that are still growing in the same little pot.  One of these days I'll get around to splitting those two up.  The little one is hanging on but I know she'd do so much better alone in a pot.

Cat Grass

Grass seems to want to grow just about anywhere it can find that has even the slightest bit of dirt. Here we were in Galveston checking out Jean Lafitte's old castle grounds.  You can see the wall footing from part of the structure here with grass growing in and out of the footprint.  Even in the shadow, although patchy, it's taking root.

Since we got cats my wife has decided they need a bit of greenery in their lives.  So we ordered some seeds and got one of the pots that isn't currently growing anything and planted some cat grass.  That's fancy talk for wheat, oats, and barley. If I let it grow, we could even harvest grain from it but I don't think that's the idea here.  Cats are high end carnivores and don't take to salad eating much but a little green is apparently also good for their gut health.

I'm going to grow it outside for the most part and since our house faces West, the East side is in the back and gets some good morning sun on our patio.  I don't want it just out in the yard so the pot will sit there.  With proper watering and patience we should have some greenery for the cats in a couple weeks.  Again if I let it grow more we would have grain in a few months.  Might try that with a little of it just to see how it goes.  There's plenty of seed  in the bag.

Also probably going to see about getting better grass for the yard.  The stuff they have in there now is patchy and not very attractive.  It's sod though so maybe it will eventually grow in better.  At the previous house we had St. Augustine grass.  That's what I grew up having at my grandparents houses.  the both of them swore by it.  So, we'll see.

Personal Total Eclipse

So many people said they really didn't care to watch the eclipse.  It's so confusing since these same people are the kind of person that would spend thousands of dollars on other events that might be considered once in a lifetime events.

Considering where we are and how much effort it really took most people you'd think that at least they would bother to look up.

I don't know how many pictures I've seen of the eclipse.  Most of them are similar to this one I took where it's exactly as you'd expect and have been told by thousands of media outlets that you'd see.

Whereas the image itself is really nothing special, and frankly I've seen so many better pictures, the event was something I'm glad I took off work to experience.  I was able to spend hours with friends chatting about the eclipse as well as anything but the eclipse.  For the most part it was an excuse to have an off day.

What I didn't expect was the speed at which the sky darkened and got lighter afterwards.  Also the chill in the air as the sun was slowly dimming.  I guess I should have thought of that but to experience it was akin to being a small child and having an airplane fly overhead and cast its shadow on you.  But this was the moon.  It put into perspective the massive size of everything and how I'm just one person on this huge planet.

I also found it interesting that everyone experienced the eclipse differently.  Different clouds, different duration, different mood.  Although we were looking at the same thing, we didn't experience the same thing.

In conclusion, yeah, I'd do it again.

The Great American Solar Eclipse 2024

This is a picture of the partial solar eclipse back in 2017.  At that time the total eclipse was a band more northerly than we are here in the Dallas area.  We still got this much coverage though.  This was taken about the height of the eclipse in Richardson, Texas.  We had a grill out and ate burgers, cupcakes and swam in the pool.

This coming Monday we will get to experience a total eclipse, probably for a little less than two minutes where we'll be in McKinney having another cookout with friends.

I've always liked viewing all stages of eclipse.  Back a few years even earlier than this I stayed up to view the lunar eclipse.  It was a clear night with no cloud cover and the moon was nearly overhead making the viewing awesome!  My wife didn't want to bother with it and said to wake her up when it was at its peak.  She was less impressed but though it was interesting.

My first eclipse I can remember I was probably 4 or 5 years old in my grandmother's backyard.  She told me how rare it is to be living in the path of a total eclipse and that most people have to travel to ever see one.  So we're fortunate for this one to be passing over so many people. 

Addi Saying Hi to the Camera

To be fair she'd say hi to anything you're holding.  Or more like she wants to know and smell and bat around, because everything is a toy, whatever you're holding.

This was the least fuzzy frame I could get from the video of her saying hi.  Many are too close and blurry to see her well.

The rug is one of my favorite pieces that we've bought in recent years.  Since we moved to a house though we're rethinking where it should go.  Currently in the middle of the living room but it may wind up in the study as nearly a carpet replacement since its nearly the same size.  I think there will be about a foot all around where the carpet would be able to be seen almost like an edging for the rug.

Speaking of the study we have to take my desk apart to get it in the room.  One thing they don't tell you about some new homes is that the doors aren't necessarily as wide as they should be.  I guess they have to cut corners somewhere to get the price down to be affordable.  Fortunately I've already taken this specific desk apart to move it myself and it's marked for easy reassemble. Once it's in I don't plan on moving it any time soon so it will be fine.

The rug we're looking at getting for the main room is going to be brighter and more fitting for the rest of the decor.  A bit less bold.

Sean Taking a Nap

After a couple days Sean and Addi are finally settling down.  They took a fairly long nap yesterday and had a good play afterwards in the evening.

They are starting to get used to the idea of not getting fed immediately when I get up in the morning.  Our previous cats Grade and Solomon were fed in the mornings and Grace specifically made sure meal time was not missed.  So if I either forgot or was for some reason not able to feed them at the usual time Grace would lightly tap my wife's face as she was sleeping to alert her that meal time was severely (5 minutes or more) overdue.

They are really cuddly, good lap cats when they want to be.  Last night it stormed and they were wanting comfort.  Both of them stayed either under foot, on lap, or next to whatever computer was being worked at by either of us.

Still a lot of things to unpack and organize.  We cooked for the first time yesterday evening and gave them a small piece of chicken each.  They had already had their wet food but they had been stressed.

You can tell this is Sean because his nose is all black.  Addi has a faint stripe down her nose.

Moving progress

These have got to be some of the best boxes for storage and of course moving.  We borrowed these from a friend who still has 20 some odd left they have to unpack from the last time they moved.  They stack well and stable.

Beware some brands are less durable.  Also don't put anything living in these.  They are hard enough to open from the outside.  I don't think it would be possible to get out from the inside if the lid is put on properly.

We will have to make sure of this with the kittens we're bringing home since we'll be unpacking for a while and these bins will be everywhere.  We'll probably empty them and put the empties in the garage in stacks so they aren't a hazard.

We went by and did the initial walkthrough yesterday and they were putting up the fence.  Have some pictures of that as well but for a later post.  It was interesting the way they were keeping the fence line straight though with a custom made fence leveler. 

Sean and Addi

Just under 2 weeks before we can bring our new kitties home with us!

Of course that's because we don't yet have the new home to bring them to.  We're finally moving back into a house though and one of our friends was kind enough to find these two for us.  She also helped nurse them back to health after they had been found abandoned and did a great job socializing them.

Sean is going to be a bit bigger than Addi but they are the cutest siblings.

This also means we will be getting back to some larger scale gardening!  I'm going to plan better this time since we have a new home and a fresh yard to map out.  I can get things where they should be instead of where I can fit them in with everything that's already there.  I'm not sure about trees just yet though, they are a bit more than I think I want to take care of just yet, except for Claude of course but he's an inside tree...